Thursday, July 13, 2006

I talked to Hank a couple times today, and she's doing ok. Obviously it's pretty sad that her father has passed away, but really Alzheimer's had taken much of him away about a decade ago.

Daisy is handling this whole thing well. She had really only met this Grandpa once, and he was past the point of being able to converse with her. Daisy knows this is a sad time, but she's pretty easily distracted by the goodness of her everyday life. I don't know if it has set in that the person who died is her mom's dad.

Meanwhile, our friends are popping up all over the place looking to see how they can help. Since Hank is on the other side of the country with her stepmom and various relatives, there's not much that our San Francisco friends can do for her. Instead, they're graciously offering me their time, energy, and food. Sometimes I forget that my friends are there to do more than just amuse me. Today they're not letting me forget.

I'm pretty self sufficient though. I got Daisy off to day camp this morning, with a proper lunch packed and everything. Breakfast had been stuffed into the correct orifice and all went well. Really, the only thing that's suffering a bit is my work.

Today during a weekly teleconference call, I had to admit that I had not done the research into the items that I had been assigned. I apologized and explained that I had been focusing on other activities and deadlines, which is entirely true. I considered however, as I was making my excuses, playing the Death Card. Who's going to blame a guy for not doing some research when there's been a death in the family? Instead, I exercised a modicum of restraint and kept a sliver of dignity. It was a close one though.